NBA Playoffs Series Preview: Cavaliers vs. Celtics
Alex Christenson
Once again, the WTA takes center stage with ATP events not resuming until the middle of the week. The second-to-last WTA 1000 event of the season in Guadalajara is the premier tournament this week, as the top players look to make a push for the year-end finals.
Peyton Stearns over Caroline Dolehide (2)
In her first full year of playing Tour events, Peyton Stearns has gone 8-3 in first-round matches and has an 80% win rate versus players outside of the top 100 in 2023. Caroline Dolehide, on the other hand, is 3-7 versus the top 100 and hasn’t won a main-draw match on hardcourts since February.
Anastasia Potapova over Emiliana Arango (2)
Arango’s preferred surface is clay. In her only two hardcourt matches versus Top-100 players, she won only three games off Varvara Gracheva and two games off Anna Carolina Schmiedlova.
Danielle Collins over Beatriz Haddad Maia (3)
Haddad Maia was able to reach her career peak ranking of No. 10 in the world right before the grass swing. She currently sits at No. 20 after failing to produce the results expected of a top-10 player. The early part of the season was rough for Danielle Collins, but she seemed to find her return game again and is once again a formidable opponent for top players. She’s enjoyed this end-of-summer run of premier events, making the quarterfinal in Montreal and the semifinal in San Diego where she had to get through Jelena Ostapenko and Caroline Garcia.
Storm Hunter over Iryna Shymanovich (3)
Between the two, they have a total of three main-draw wins in 2023. All three came on clay with each of them winning their first-round matches at Roland Garros. I’m giving Hunter the slightest of edges here, as she has been tested by better competition in singles events and is 11-4 versus opponents ranked lower than her in the last 52 weeks.
Sofia Kenin over Carol Zhao (2)
In the last 52 weeks, Carol Zhao is 2-7 versus the top 100 (both wins on grass). In her seven losses, she’s only come close to winning one set, which she lost in a tiebreaker to Jil Teichmann almost a year ago.
Marta Kostyuk over Stacey Fung (2)
Fung has exactly one match versus a top-100 player in her entire career – a 1-6, 6-4, 1-6 loss to Linda Noskova. Of all of the major favorites on this day, I think Kostyuk has the best chance of making us sweat out a set, or she could even drop one to Fung.
Vika Azarenka over Robin Montgomery (2)
Emma Navarro over Maria Mateas (2)
Magdalena Frech over Camila Osorio (3)
This same prediction didn’t work out last week in San Diego, but Osorio ended up retiring down a set and 2-2 in the second. She got her thigh taped up during the set after tweaking something while sprinting to the net in the opening game. Frech converted on 7-of-7 breakpoints in their last meeting, and if she can do a better job defending her own breakpoints this time around against a potentially less than 100% Osorio, she could be moving on.
Mayar Sherif over Camila Giorgi (2)
Typically we attack Sherif on hardcourts, but Girogi’s game has been so erratic this year that I’m either taking Sherif or fading the match all together. There hasn’t been much consistency to Giorgi in 2023, and the altitude could accentuate the misfires.
Jasmine Paolini over MartinaTrevisan (3)
Eugenie Bouchard over Veronika Kudermetova (3)
Kudermetova has not had a positive run since the return to hardcourts in August. She’s been below 40% return points won in seven of her last 10 matches, and her first serves looked awful versus Kenin in the loss at San Diego. With not much value presenting itself, I’m willing to attack the poor form with Genie.
Belinda Bencic over Taylor Townsend (2)
Townsend enters this match with four main-draw wins on hardcourts in 2023, picking up two of them at the US Open. Bencic will be motivated to improve her WTA Finals race ranking with a good showing in Mexico. She hasn’t lost three consecutive matches since February/March of 2022.
Karolina Pliskova over Hailey Baptiste (3)
High-tier: Anastasia Potapova, Sofia Kenin, Vika Azarenka, Emma Navarro, Marta Kostyuk, Karolina Pliskova
Mid-tier: Peyton Stearns, Belinda Bencic, Jasmine Paolini, Danielle Collins, Storm Hunter
Value: Eugenie Bouchard, Mayar Sherif, Magdalena Frech
Favorite Plays: Peyton Stearns, Anastasia Potapova
